Arthur Miller is universally regarded as one of the world’s leading contemporary playwrights, with modern classics including Death of a Salesman and The Crucible to his credit. This interview with Miller was recorded as The Ride Down Mount Morgan opened in London. Written when he was seventy-six, it was his first full-length play in more than a decade. Miller talks about the piece, revealing not only his disenchantment with American theatre and culture, but also his deep concern for the moral and spiritual welfare of his country.
Julian Barnes
This film profile of one of today’s most critically and commercially successful British novelists includes dramatised scenes from his book Talking It Over, which deals with his perennial themes of love and jealousy. Barnes talks about his work in interview and admits to being obsessed with obsessions.
The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips’s passion for the unaccompanied sacred choral music of the Renaissance period informed his mission to transform a talented amateur singing group into the polished, professional Tallis Scholars. This film shows off their accomplishments in performances of works by Cornyshe, Taverner, Tallis, Byrd, Desprès and Obrecht, among others. It charts Phillips’s personal odyssey and travels with him to Bruges, centre of the richly-coloured music of the fifteenth-century Low Countries.
Willard White
Singer Sir Willard White not only has a superb bass/baritone voice, but his acting talent has landed him leading roles in the theatre as well as on the operatic stage. Jamaican by birth, he now lives in England, but this programme takes him back to his homeland to tell the remarkable story of his success. He demonstrates his operatic skills in special recordings of some of his most celebrated roles, and is seen in rehearsals for an English National Opera production of Pelleas and Melisande.
Communicado
Communicado, a touring Company which works in Scotland, is one of Britain’s most innovative and exciting theatre groups. This programme follows the development of one of its projects, a daring theatrical extravaganza by Jock Tamson called Bairns. It sits in on rehearsals and witnesses the grand spectacle of the finished piece.
Yuri Bashmet
The internationally-acclaimed Ukrainian viola virtuoso, whose dark good looks have earned him the nickname of ‘the Paganini of our age’, is seen giving the Russian premiere of Schnittke’s Monologue and performing with the legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter in the Pushkin Museum. In his Moscow flat, he discusses social and musical issues with other Russian artists and improvises on the viola. It transpires that The Beatles were the catalyst to his musical success!
Toulouse-Lautrec
A major exhibition of the lithographs of Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) at London’s Royal Academy is the starting point for a programme on one of the most colourful figures in late nineteenth-century art, famous for his pictures of Parisian dance halls and cabarets. Artists, scholars and admirers are invited to comment on their choice of work from the exhibition.
Istvan Szabo
In an interview filmed in his native Hungary, one of Europe’s leading directors, Istvan Szabo, talks about his beliefs, his background and his career. His vision is illustrated with extensive clips from his work, from the early award-winning Father to Hanussen. Lighting cameraman Lajos Koltai talks about his collaboration with the film-maker, as does actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, who was critically acclaimed for his performances in Szabo’s Oscar-winning Mephisto and Colonel Redi.
Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing is one of Britain’s greatest contemporary novelists. Her career spans some fifty years and her many books explore a multiplicity of themes; feminism, communism, religion, madness, civilisation and the future of Western society. She has ranged through realistic fiction, science fantasy, factual writing and mythic parable. In this programme, Lessing talks about her writing and her highly original view of the world.
V.s Naipaul
West Indian author, V. S. Naipaul, acclaimed for books such as A House for Mr. Biswas and In a Free State, talks in interview about his writing, in particular his autobiographically-based novel, The Enigma of Arrival. He contrasts the inspiration he found for this work in the English countryside, where he now lives, with the Caribbean, African and Indian influences that dominate his fiction and travel titles. The programme is illustrated with readings from his work.